#copper schnee

[snowsisterskiss]

Weiss is a disaster bisexual with a preference for maturity. Here's how Copper Snowflakes can still-

[pilot-boi]

Wonder what other ghosts affect the Voices AU. Watts? Lionheart? Sienna? Fennec Albain? Amber? Vernal? Brawnz, Roy, and May Z? Pilot Boi? Fria? Nicholas Schnee? Gretchen? F Pickerel (the guy who initially captured Tyrian)? Ilia's parents? That huntsman that died in front of RNJR in Volume 4? Fox's uncle Copper? Marcus Black? Bartleby from Brunswick Farms? Ozpin (the host, not Ozma)? Forest? Curious? Neo's parents? Rhodes? Sleet? Hazel? Tock? Tukson? Clover? Vine? Sorry this is a lot.

Nah you’re good, lemme just cover them one at a time. It’s nice to see people excited

Saddle in because this going to be VERY long

Okay first of all we need to establish some ground rules. Not all deaths in Remnant create a ghost, otherwise Jaune wouldn’t be able to function ANYWHERE because if all natural deaths made a ghost the whole world would be infested

So ghosts only appear from particularly traumatic/violent deaths. AKA Grimm, usually. But if you die peacefully in your bed, you don’t make a ghost.

ALSO, if it’s been long enough, or they don’t have a reason to stay, a ghost will fade away. This process is faster for ghosts without their Aura unlocked. As they fade they become harder and harder to understand until their speech is complete unintelligible

For example, Oz and Salem’s daughters have LONG since faded. In Kuroyuri most of the citizens are still around but they’re completely unintelligible and barely corporeal, but Li is the same as the day he died because he has a “mission” to continue protecting the village

So going through the list, I can say that Fria, Nicholas Schnee, and presumably Neo’s parents wouldn’t have ghosts. They all died naturally. But all those other guys would have ghosts

Most of them continue haunting the area where they died, or go off and do their own thing

Some of them would probably follow the gang around if they could but they don’t know where the gang is. For example, Ironwood only knows where they are because he was in the inner circle and so knows the next target is Vacuo

And then there’s the ghosts that don’t follow out of choice

Pilot Boi, for example, tries to find his way back to Atlas. Bartleby continues haunting his farm even after the gang leave. Lionheart is a coward and stays in Haven Academy. The huntsman who died returns to the capital, same with Tock with her respective city. Forest and Sleet stay haunting the ruins of Mantle and Atlas, as do Amber and Tukson with Vale.

That leaves a LOT of ghosts though, so let’s cover them one at a time

Most of them, if they don’t haunt a location, follow around someone who was important to them in life, like Pyrrha does with Jaune

Watts and Ironwood both go to Vacuo, because they know that’s the next target. They bicker the whole way which is very entertaining

Hazel follows Emerald around, a sort of guardian spirit. Since he helped them escape and fought Salem for them, Jaune doesn’t see any reason to try and get him to leave. He does tell Emerald that Hazel is there, though

Fennec follows his brother around, which mostly just consists of the two of them sitting in jail. He tries to comfort his brother, but of course Corsac doesn’t know he’s there

Sienna follows Adam around, constantly berating him, and she helps Pyrrha kick his ass when he finally dies. After that she goes back to Menagerie

Vernal either follows Raven around or returns to the tribe. It’s not like she’d be lonely, there’s plenty of ghosts in the Branwens to keep her company

Brawnz, Roy, and May Z all follow Nolan to Vacuo when he goes. He doesn’t know they’re there until Jaune arrives and can tell him, and then Nolan breaks down crying because his team didn’t let him have to be alone, even after dying

Gretchen, of course, follows her twin around and the two reunite after his death. It’s the happiest and most complete Hazel has felt in decades. Jaune doesn’t even know they were siblings until after Hazel dies and they reunite. After all, she still looks seventeen

F Pickerel probably tries to follow Tyrian around, at least until he joins Salem, and then the man’s spirit is promptly banished. Gretchen she allows to stay because she knows the girl won’t try to interfere, she just wants to be with her brother, but Pickerel could be a problem

Ilia’s parents of course follow her around, from Mantle to Mistral to Menagerie and eventually to Vacuo. Not that she knows, again until Jaune gets to Vacuo and can tell her. Then she has a similar reaction to Nolan

Copper follows Fox until he joins team CFVY and finally has a family again, then the man passes on since his “nephew” is safe and loved

Marcus Black would certainly TRY to follow Mercury, at least until he gets to Everlight. Then the man almost meets a similar fate from Gretchen as Adam does at Pyrrha’s hands. Gretchen isn’t quite strong enough to get him to leave, just enough to get him to keep his distance. Once Hazel dies, though, it’s all over for him

Ozpin, of course, follows Oscar around. Jaune actually figured something is up with Oscar when they first meet because for the first time ever, someone else can hear what a ghost is saying. Only the most recent Ozcarnation remains as a spirit, and as the merge comes closer, Ozpin’s ghost starts to fade

Oz used to be able to see/hear ghosts just like Salem, but as he’s used up his magic he’s lost that ability. He DOES know that Jaune can see ghosts, because the boy makes eye contact with him and reacts when he speaks to Oscar

Rhodes would, of course, follow Cinder, but he gets similarly banished when she joins up with Salem. A Huntsman’s spirit is too dangerous to keep around

Clover follows Qrow around, trying to apologize to the man for his stupidity. The two of them reunite when Vine dies, and they actually also get to reunite with Tortuga as well. With Tortuga back it’s the first time the Ace Ops have felt whole since his death, and all three follow the remaining Ace Ops to Vacuo

And finally, the Curious Cat. CC doesn’t leave a spirit when they die, because Ascension works differently. No body left behind, so I figure also no spirit. Alyx only left one behind because she was killed and because she’s from Remnant she doesn’t ascend

[softly-potter]

Hollywood's Dead

Summary: Ruby sneaks into Atlas to see Weiss perform.

Pairing: Weiss x Ruby

Word Count: 1,176

Warning: none

A/N: loosely inspired by Hollywood's Dead by Lana Del Rey

-

Who am I to complain?

My lifes been spared so much pain.

Ruby clenches her skirt in her hands, digs her nails into the skin of her palms. Weiss’ voice is silky, draping over Ruby and holding her close, warming her.

This is the closest Ruby had been to the girl since the fall of Beacon, and she is unprepared. Her stomach churns, throat dry as she listens to Weiss sing along with the rest of Atlas. The audience is silent, listening on baited breath as Weiss clenches her hands together, her eyes scanning over the crowd. 

Born with all that I need, my comforts all guaranteed.

Ruby knows Weiss can’t see her, she made sure of it. Her hood is pulled low over her forehead, concealing her face, and she wore the clothing of a commoner, Crescent Rose perfectly hidden on her back. She knows Weiss is half blinded by the stage lights, unable to focus on those watching her, but she still hopes. Hopes her girl can at least feel her.

So what's the problem, what's keeping me? From moving forward, it’s hard to see.

Weiss spins, her blue and silver dress swishing around her ankles. Raising her arms, she clenches her fingers, the song pouring from her like silk.

I should be free now, I should be fine. But the life I fought for, still isn’t mine.

Ruby bites her lip, feels copper on her tongue. She wishes to run onto the stage, take Weiss’ hand and tug her from a world that had been so unfair. If only Ruby had been faster. If only she had helped Pyrrha when she fought Cinder, if she had run faster, would Prrya have lived? Would their school still be upright, instead of a pile of broken rubble? Would Weiss have said yes to Ruby’s unasked question?

Some believe in fairy stories, and the ghosts that they can’t see. I know that I could do so much, if I could just believe in me.

“She’s so talented.” Whispers a woman sitting to Ruby’s left. Unsure, Ruby nods, gives a weak smile.

“She really is.” Ruby whispers back. A man sitting on the opposite side of the woman nods enthusiastically.

“I expect nothing more from a Schnee.” The man laughs, and Ruby swallows hard.

Mirror mirror, tell me something, can I stop my fall?

Ruby licks her dry lips, refocusing her attention on the girl with silver hair. Weiss sways to the sound of the piano, her voice dripping with unbridled talent.

Years of scorn will leave you cold, ‘forget your dream, do what you’re told’

Gritting her teeth, Ruby’s eyes flick up to the balcony. Jacque Schnee sits with a leg bent at the knee, ankle balancing perfectly over one thigh. With his hands tented, he seems to be inspecting Weiss, measuring her up mentally, and it makes Ruby’s blood boil.

When disapproval all you’re shown, the safest palace becomes alone.

Ruby lets out a short gasp, dropping her chin in case anyone in the audience heard her. Did Weiss really believe the song she was singing? Was she so far gone that Ruby couldn’t reach her?

And isolation’s the price you pay, and every friendship is pushed away.

Twirling again, Weiss places her hands upon her chest, her pale face aimed to the heavens as she continues the melody, and Ruby can no longer listen. Standing, she quietly moves through the crowd, keeping her cloak tightly against her as she weaves in between members. When she’s finally freed, she hastily makes her way to the corridors, eyes scanning for the nearest exit. She spies the restroom, and decides to make the best of it. Pushing open the door, she lurches to the sink, bending over the porcelain. 

But bit by bit now, a step each day, I’m slowly starting to find my way.

Flicking on the faucet, Ruby splashes cool water against her face, lets the droplets run down her skin as she looks at her reflection.

“She’s lost,” Ruby whispers, silver eyes welling and she bats them away quickly. “She’s just lost.” leaning back under the faucet, Ruby shuts her eyes, lets the water run over her chin and tongue.

“I thought that was you.”

Some believe in fairy stories, and ghosts they can’t see.

Ruby jumps, water spraying over her clothing and stares at the door. Weiss smiles shyly, tugs on the edge of her sleeve.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Ruby whispers and her voice feels like sandpaper. She stands in shock, her feet rooted to the spot and Weiss looks away, a pretty flush gracing her cheeks.

“What're you doing here, Ruby? And what are you wearing?”

I know that I could do so much, if I could just believe in me.

Ruby shuffles, her gaze breaking and drops to her clothing. She shrugs, looks away hopelessly. “I had to fit in. The red would have… stuck out.”

“Ah,” Weiss says softly, clasping her hands together. She takes a singular step forward, her head bending to the side. “I see. But you didn't answer my first question.”

Mirror mirror, I’ll tell you something.

Ruby sighs, runs a hand down her face. “You have to know.”

“Do I?” Weiss counters, her dress swishing as she takes a step. “Know what?”

I think I might change it all.

“Don’t, please,” Ruby whispers, holding a hand up. “Don’t play dumb. It isn’t nice. You're not an idiot, you’ve always known.”

Weiss chuckles, the sound soft and breathy, and when she grabs Ruby’s wrist, her eyes are bright. “Of course I know. I just…” she pauses, her voice dropping an octave. “Wanted to hear you say it.”

Rushing forward, Ruby presses her mouth to Weiss’. Weiss lets out a surprised sound, before her lips go placid and she kisses Ruby back. It’s chaste and quick and everything Ruby had every thought kissing Weiss would be like.

Pulling back, Ruby takes a breath. “Don’t tell me it's over.” She whispers. Cupping Weiss’s face, she strokes a thumb across her cheek. Weiss shakes her head, lets out a soft laugh again. Leaning forward, she presses her forehead against Ruby’s and her eyes flutter shut.

“No, it isn't over.” Weiss says, her cool breath fanning over Ruby’s mouth. Ruby swallows, nodding as she cups Weiss’ face with both her hands. 

“You’ll come with me won’t you?” Ruby asks gently, worried she’s asking too much. Weiss’ brows crinkle and she nods quickly, grips Ruby’s wrists.

“My Hollywood career has long been dead anyways,” she says with a light laugh, and Ruby breathes out a sigh of relief. Hesitantly, she leans forward and Weiss meets her half way, her lips soft as they move in sequence. Slipping her tongue along Ruby’s lower lip, Weiss hums happily.

Pulling back, Ruby grins. “Y’now, in this lighting, you're… so beautiful,” she says, admiring how Weiss blushes. “On that stage? So sickeningly beautiful.”

Weiss rolls her eyes but keeps her grip on Ruby's wrist, moving her fingers to incase Ruby’s and she gives her skin a squeeze.

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Tier 2 Recap

256. 254. Andrew Ryan from Buoshck

255. 216. Nyssa õf Traken from Doctor who

254. 228. Asha from Iji

253. 22. Whisper Schnee from Boldores and Boomsticks

252. 253. Chuuya Nakahara from Bungou stray dogs

251. 18. Mapleshade from warrior cats

250. 190. Andrew Eldritch from real life

249. 120. sans undertale from undertale

248. 219. T-Rex from Jurassic Park

247. 141. Karkat Vantas from Homestuck

246. 53. Rasputin IV from X-Men

245. 20. Hunter | The Golden Guard from The Owl House

244. 7. Kim Dokja from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

243. 50. Death from Darksiders

242. 266. Dave Miller from Dsaf

241. 174. Dr. Miranda Jones from Star Trek: The Original Series

240. 274. donquixote doflamingo from one piece

239. 92. Hyakunosuke Ogata from Golden Kamuy

238. 11. Kha'Nel from Dragens Øye

237. 139. George Costanza from Seinfeld

236. 121. Rampage from Beast Wars

235. 62. ε (epsilon) from Mathematics, real life (kinda? Not sure maths qualifies as real life) ) (common phrase: Let ε>0 be any real number)

234. 134. BoJack Horseman from BoJack Horseman

233. 291. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

232. 129. Flavio Rezza (MC Flava) from real life

231. 215. Goodtimewithscar or Scar for short (the minecraft youtuber)

230. 186. Percy Weasley from Harry Potter

229. 170. claude frollo from the hunchback of notre dame (specifically the stage musical)

228. 217. Grian from Life Series (3rd/Last/Double/Limited Life)

227. 168. the submitter from real life

226. 269. Mizi from Alien Stage

225. 96. Robin Stuart from Arc of Infinity (Doctor Who)

224. 172. Tessa Minsky from Imogen, Obviously

223. 267. Ea-nasir (real life copper merchant - 1750 BCE)

222. 37. Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa V3

221. 147. Rose Lavillant from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

220. 135. Fiver from Watership down

219. 251. Keith Kogane from Voltron

218. 63. Cricket from Wings of Fire

217. 146. Adric of Alzarius from Doctor Who

216. 177. Mort from the Madagascar Movies/All Hail King Julian

215. 59. Edward Elric from Fullmetal metal alchemist

214. 290. Jimmy Solidarity from The Empires smp

213. 259. rayla from the dragon prince

212. 205. Starfy from The Legendary Starfy

211. 232. Taako from The Adventure Zone

210. 188. Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid

209/208. 182. Matt Murdock from Daredevil (Netflix)

209/208. 107. Ted Kord from DC comics

207. 86. Juleka Couffaine from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

206. 27. Sailor Saturn from Sailor Moon

205. 197. Marc Anciel from Miraculous Ladybug

204. 159. Yona from Yona of the Dawn

203. 220. David Chiem from Danganronpa: Despair Time

202. 125. Tynan from Aurora Webcomic

201. 169. Kid Blink from Newsies

200. 128. π (pi) from Mathematics (as in half a circle of radius 1)

199. 275. Zee from Total Drama 2023

198. 278. Flynn Moore from Echo (the furry vn)

197. 270. Caim Tivh from Mørkalven

196. 195. Grendel, The Grimm General from Boldores and Boomsticks

195. 280. Hermie the Unworthy from Dungeons and Daddies

194. 181. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from My Immortal

193. 247. Monkey D Luffy from One Piece

[hellomydepressions]

gee penny how come crwby let you have FOUR girlfriends

[ozpins-halfway-house]

Just wanted to say good morning to the kids! My names Copper I’m a new volunteer! I’m excited to meet all of you and I hope we all get along! -🐱

[You meet the kids right before they head off to school and help Jaune and Pyrrha get them ready]

Oscar: Oh. Cool. Hi, Copper.

Weiss: Hello there.

Whitley: Hi...

Emerald: Nice to meet you.

Blake: [waves] Hello...

[bridgyrose]

On ship requests... Ciel, Penny, Ruby, and Weiss? Doing something fluffy and wholesome, or some sort of hurt/comfort thing?

Weiss slowly walked into the kitchen in the morning, yawning and still a bit tired from a restless night of sleep. A persistent nightmare had been plaguing her, making her slightly paranoid and worried about everything. She smiled a bit as she saw Ruby making breakfast, slowly walking over to her. “So, what are you making this morning.” 

Ruby smiled and turned around to kiss Weiss. “Eggs. Penny and Ciel went into town for a bit to pick up a few supplies for my next mission.” 

“Do you have to go?”

“You know I need to. Ozpin is counting on me-” 

“But what if you dont come back?”

Ruby hesitated for a moment. “I’ll always come back. We dont have anything to worry about.” 

Weiss sighed and wrapped her arms around Ruby, pressing in close. “I’ve.. been having nightmares about you not coming back. And I… I dont want them to come true.”

Ruby held Weiss tightly, nuzzling her a bit. “I’ll be fine. I promise.” 

Weiss winced as she felt something sharp stab her back, feeling it press deeper into her. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weiss jolted awake from the nightmare, panting and sweating hard. She instinctively touched her back, feeling for any sort of stab wound. She started to relax a little bit when she didnt feel anything. 

Ciel slowly woke up, pressing into Weiss. “What’s wrong?” 

“It’s… nothing. Just another nightmare.” 

“Again?”

“Yeah, again.” 

Ciel pulled Weiss back down to cuddle. “Ruby wont be home for another couple days. She’ll be fine.” 

Penny nodded and kissed Weiss. “You dont have to fear for girlfriend Ruby’s safety. She always comes back fine.” 

Weiss snuggled in between her girlfriends, trying to get comfy. “R-right. She’s always fine.” She knew she had nothing to worry about, but her nightmares… each one of them left her a little more terrified of her girlfriends, paranoid about what they’d do to her. She sat up for a moment to take her medication again, slowly trying to relax, repeating to herself over and over that she had nothing to fear. Especially not her girlfriends. 

[priority-sys]

Drew the Penny polycule. You know, I really should start elaborating on this AU a little bit more...

...oh what’s the fun in that? 

[musings-from-mars]

53, Cold Copper Stopwatch?

Cute Domestic Things 53. Cooking together

(Cold Copper Stopwatch = Ruby x Weiss x Penny x Ciel)

Ruby stood proudly in the kitchen, chef’s hat on her head, wooden spoon in hand. “Alright, my babes! Let’s make some cookies!”

Penny clapped her hands excitedly. “I am so ready!”

“Even if you can’t eat anything?” Weiss asked her.

“It’s like arts and crafts.” Penny explained. “With really intense heating elements!”

“Precisely!” Ruby pointed at her. “Ciel is retrieving the ingredients, and once she returns, we shall begin!”

Just then, Ciel stumbled into the kitchen, huge sack of flour over her shoulder, arms full of other ingredients. She flops them all down onto the counter with a grunt. “There...”

“Uhm...” Weiss murmured. “How many cookies do we plan to make?”

“Enough to last us months!” Ruby declared, producing three dozen eggs from the refrigerator.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to just bake a new batch whenever we run out?” Weiss asked, concerned.

“Now where’s the fun in that?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, Weiss,” Ciel muttered, slouching in exhaustion from carrying all those ingredients. “We gotta *sigh* we gotta make all the cookies.”

“ALL THE COOKIES!” Ruby declared.

“This is going to to go great...” Weiss muttered to herself.

*Spongebob narrator voice* Five minutes later...

Penny’s hands are on fire. “Oh my,” Penny murmurs, mildly concerned.

“I said to turn on the oven, not the stove!” Ruby yelled.

Ciel ran in, fire extinguisher in hand. “Stand back!” She proceeds to blanket the other three girls with the extinguisher.

“Well...” Weiss said, her face completely obscured. “I think that settles it. Let’s just go buy Oreos from now on.”

“At least we had fun, right?” Ruby asked.

There was a pause.

“Yeah,” Weiss admitted. “It was.”

[rwby-mulitshipper]

Not sure how many characters we can do for the ask meme. But how about team POWR for the meme! Consisting of Penny, Oscar, Whitley and Ruby!

Thank you for visiting my inbox so consistently! I love you!

i also added a few new things, oops

Penny

Sexual and romantic orientation: Asexual and Biromantic

Gender identity: Transwoman!

Pronouns: She/Her!

OTP: Coppersky (Penny/Ciel) but recently I’ve fallen into Artificial Snow (Penny/Winter) heaven

OT3: Copper Stopwatch (Penny/Ruby/Ciel)

BrOTP: Penny and Whitley. I love the idea of them being awkward besties!

nOTP: Penny X anyone who wants to hurt her

Favorite headcanon: Penny loves going to movies

Random headcanon: Penny loves getting hugs from Winter

Oscar

Sexual and romantic orientation: just a little gay babey boy

Gender identity: Transman! FTM!

Pronouns: He/Him

OTP: Prophetic Riches (Oscar/Whitley)

OT3: Don’t have one

BrOTP: Oscar and Jaune!

nOTP: B*d H*rvest

Favorite headcanon: Oscar stutters when he’s anxious

Random headcanon: Oscar really likes crab and lobster!

Whitley

Sexual and romantic orientation: Also gay!

Gender identity: Transman! FTM!

Pronouns: He/Him!

OTP: Prophetic Riches (Oscar/Whitley)

OT3: I don’t have one

BrOTP: I’m weak for team RWBY adopting Whitley and becoming his big sisters (even though Weiss already is)

nOTP: T*xic T*ngue

Favorite headcanon: Whitley is mostly self taught on the piano

Random headcanon: Whitley likes ice skating

Ruby

Sexual and romantic orientation: Pansexual!

Gender identity: Transwoman! MTF!

Pronouns: She/Her

OTP: Whiterose (Weiss/Ruby) or Ladybug (Ruby/Blake)

OT3: Newspaper (Ruby/Weiss/Blake)

BrOTP: Strawberry Sunrise or Ruby and Jaune!

nOTP: R*sewick or F*llen P*tals

Favorite headcanon: Ruby learns how to use her silver eyes after losing one (Ruby loses an eye)

Random headcanon: Ruby’s really good at math

[onewomancitadel]

Searching for Cinder's Suitor

Everyone knows the R/WBY ships are full of opposite elements stuff. You've heard enough from me about it, and lots of other smarter and cleverer people have talked about Ruby's magical silver eyes to Oscar's magical gold eyes, Blake's dark to Yang's light, so on and so forth. Like them, the person she should be paired romantically with should be something opposite of her element. It's contextually sensitive to her, like yin/yang is to Blake/Yang.

There are a couple of things we could use to narrow down Cinder's romantic suitor. Today, I'm going to focus on water, for the following reasons: a) it's not Jung for once, or it only sort of is b) since fire is such a major element for her, finding someone water-themed and obvious should be easy, and finally, c) because water is just one part of the opposite pairs, it'll be very handy to narrow down our competitors.

The reason I don't say ice is because fire/ice is more of an aggressive pair, and in R/WBY I don't think Cinder is going to end up with someone who is icy/symbolically represents Atlas (cold, snowy) or is Atlesian because of the obvious. At the very least, I don't think reconciliation with her past will be represented through that - it's room for another post (especially with how she projects onto the Schnees). When I personally think of fire/ice, I'm thinking of the Robert Frost poem, about - glibly - whether world ending in fire or ice is better.

Your first objection might be that Yang has the fire to her - so there's 'already one' - but in her case that's more to do with her solar theming and light theming to Blake's dark. It is also part of symbolically connecting Yang to Cinder, since Cinder carries a lot of composite elements to the characters.

But because I think most of us can agree fire is Cinder's thing, so then Cinder needs water.

This season of The Fall Maiden Wants a Spouse is going to be very interesting.

Winter - no

Ice-themed. Cinder targets her because she represents her suffering (directly calls her Atlesian elite). Fellow Maiden who uses lightning (which mimics Cinder's torture with the collar) when used against Cinder. No water element.

Watts - no

We've barely started and this is already making me laugh.

Tyrian - no

He's a scorpion Faunus. Causes trouble and loves it. Would be inappropriate even if water-themed.

Hazel - no

Unable to attend the wedding in person. Uses a myriad of Dust, no particular one to pick out as an element.

Salem - no

Stop it.

Emerald - no

Emerald is not water-themed, and might just be emerald-themed, like Ruby is... ruby.

Mercury - no

'Quicksilver'. Probably mercury-themed. Quicksilver might be a bit like Ruby and potentially Cinder's metallic element, but silver is not what we're looking for here in a suitor.

Neo - no

I think she's icecream-themed. Cinder kicked her off a bridge; I think she might be communicating something to us.

Roman - no

No.

Raven - no

A fellow Maiden and antagonist to Cinder, Raven is not water-themed. Raven-themed. Might be Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr themed. Also would be weird considering Yang and the age bracket difference wouldn't work for R/WBY. (Cinder has to pass as a student and is like twenty-four at most. Don't make me start this here).

Penny - no

Penny was the Winter Maiden, probably copper-themed, and when she used the Maiden powers, her powers eventually evolved into like what Winter uses with the green thunder/lightning (and borrowed Cinder's weapon idea). No water here, and I think her magic was intentionally meant to be a bit inorganic/liminal.

Skipping over the Ace-ops, none of them are it.

Ironwood - no

Probably tin, but nothing else to see here.

Qrow - no

Crow-themed. Probably would say no even if offered the narrative opportunity.

Tai - no

RWBY Chibi is not canon. Dad of other fire girl. Would make things weird. The story is not THAT Freudian.

Summer Rose - no

I told you, it's not Freud (Cinder is too much like Ruby). Anyway, no water to be seen here yet, but seems unlikely. Might share a Grimm curse.

Ilia - no

Lunar-themed but no water association by extension. Electric-themed? Rainbow-themed? Electric whip would not go down well with Cinder, probably.

Adam - no

Wilting rose, dying without water/under a curse - big no. I don't want him near her anyway. Also she killed a camp of his followers with Emerald and Mercury. Not the best first impression a bride could make. Also he's dead.

Sun - no

He's solar and a bit fiery, but has a watery best friend.

Neptune - maybe!!!

Water-themed, but has a tragic past related to water and is afraid of it. Literally the only candidate so far, but has never once interacted with Cinder. Most likely paired with Sun symbolically already, and I don't think these types of pairs double-up. Will consider nevertheless, because we need it. Also named for the Roman god of the sea.

Sage - no

Watery friend, but proxmity isn't enough, as you'll see...

Scarlet - no

... the pirate-theming might bring him near the water, but it's not enough for Cinder.

Team CFVY - no.

None of them are water-themed. Chanel doesn't cut it here.

Well, so far I think I can say that's pretty exhausting, but I am being very thorough. At certain points I included ridiculous options, however ones like Lionheart have been excluded just because. She needs a more dedicated partner anyway. I'm not ruling out characters being introduced, and I obviously can't account for them (and I apologise if I missed anyone), but it doesn't seem likely. There's no romantic motivation to her villainy (and none needed), and someone involved in her redemption should be someone major.

As you can see, there's only one viable option so far - and that's Neptune. I'm feeling pretty bad for Cinder now. I have to be honest with you, I don't think they would get along very well.

Let's get the main teams out of the way:

Ruby - no

Ruby has silver eyes, but there's nothing here that's water, despite - again - the lunar association.

Weiss - no

Weiss is ice-themed, but employs fire in her arsenal. Could represent melted ice i.e. water, but that's a stretch. Character whom Cinder targets because she represents her suffering.

Blake - no

A white shadow, lunar-themed but no water to see here. Kind of the same person, would be awkward.

Yang - no

Already has a girlfriend.

Pyrrha - no

Cinder killed her. Name means flame-coloured. These two clashed for a reason, but don't seem set up romantically in any way.

Nora - no

Lightning is more her speed, and as seen with Winter, definitely not Cinder's thing.

Ren - no

The lotus flower thrives in mud, but that's not watery enough for us.

Ok, I think we might just be out of luck.

Neptune's probably already symbolically paired with Sun, and is inappropriate in other ways. If they met in the next couple of volumes, maybe it might work? He's probably going to be involved with Sun when the Vacuo arc begins, though, and he doesn't really have any stakes involved with Cinder. Also, given the future character arc for him, I don't see Cinder being involved, but at least Sun. The sun and the sea might be their thing, or at least a folk hero/god pairing (like Ren/Nora and Emerald/Mercury).

Perhaps Cinder isn't going to get a romantic interest at all, since she's just an antagonist. Or would it not matter? Given that it's R/WBY, no, it almost definitely matters. Maybe it could be ice instead? Winter seeks Cinder for revenge, but they develop respect or care for each other instead. I'm not sure how to get Cinder there, since she never lets anyone in, least of all an Atlesian Special Operative (or at least ex) and someone with the Maiden power she so desperately wants and would have to kill for. I still don't think this is the case, though, but let's revisit the question of romance at all.

Let's say if her redemption is a thing, and you know, since she's part of the main cast, she should get a romance, right? Everybody else is already paired up - and these aren't my opinions, this is what I think is being set up, rather - Blake/Yang, Ren/Nora, Ruby/Oscar, Emerald/Mercury... I don't think Weiss is getting a romance, since her arc is mostly related to the familial, and her Summon is already her knight-in-shining armour...

But who's missing?????? I must be forgetting SOMEONE.

Oh, I didn't list Oscar, that's who it is. I highly doubt Cinder would be interested in Oscar, especially since they're sort of, respectively, Salem and Ozma's children. That would also be weird. There are so many options here that are weird.

Is it appropriate that she gets a romance? Not every character necessarily needs it. Weiss is a great example, and someone like Qrow - who is Weiss' STRQ analogue - definitely isn't getting one, since both of their arcs are related to family. Character need isn't just about our own tastes though, it's about what's thematically and narratively appropriate.

Cinder has never been loved, unconditionally and fully, without compromise and without reservation, against duty, and maybe even for changing duty to stop injustice happening. If there's one character whom I think a romance would be appropriate for, with one character in the story intimately intertwined with her character - especially if she has a redemption arc - it's her.

The power of friendship doesn't 'save' her in V8. That's not enough. But she's not too far gone. Compared to the other redemption arcs already involving friendship and family, we can liddle a romance, as a treat.

Is there a main character I'm forgetting who hasn't had their endgame romance yet?? Maybe it's time to end the post. Maybe I should admit defeat.

Lol.

Jaune's Semblance is related to Aura. Apparently it's not Aura-amping, but might be something else, but for the sake of this post, Aura, Aura-amping, Aura-bridging, Aura-touching is his super special Semblance. It's in his soul. That's his thing. Like Cinder's fire is like her own Semblance and she expresses it through the Maiden power.

The visual effect over Aura is like the reflection of light from water.

Using alchemy as a reference - since that's the whole elements thing and everything it's grounded in - we can derive a few more things about Aura. I'm not explaining alchemy, there are other people who know it better, but for the purposes of this post, let me just say that red, white, black and yellow comes from the stages of alcemical transformation, that's what the show is grounded in.

Aura itself is like the mercurial waters of life,

Uh oh.

Cinder killed Pyrrha, so again: not the best impression a bride could make, but it did attract his attention, since they did have that whole confrontation in Haven over it. (Very strange and illegal courting rituals).

Pyrrha symbolically representing her misdeeds probably would do a lot for forgiveness in her redemption arc... nevermind, here's the Knightfall masterpost, I'm not going to waste your time with any more expansion on the ship. I admit my bias here, but I'm going to tell you the truth, this is one of the first things I noticed about the ship. This is just my formal analysis.

Neptune may have interested Weiss and been a source of competitive romantic angst in Beacon for Jaune, but he's not it here, not at all. Nope. In fact, I might go so far as to suggest this is the organic, ironic consequence of that arc in V2.

This is what Jaune's cut out for. He's water-themed and his Semblance emerged because Cinder put a spear through Weiss.

If that's not true love I don't know what it is. (Probably need to hop on that redemption arc and make do, especially for said spear, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).

Anyway, the water-theming is down. I've talked about the other ship patterns and themes, but this is one of Cinder's special things, so it's important. The reverse of this post is equally true: there's no one else who is fire to Jaune's water. His Semblance (and subsequent water theming) doesn't present itself until after Pyrrha (fire-haired) passes in the story, and like Neptune, I would dismiss. But there's no one else. I'm not making another post that's the inverse of this.

She's fire, he's water. Found her suitor.

Jaune - yes.

[rwby-redux]

Do you have any ideas about the genealogy of characters hair and eye colors? I know those things exist because it's like that in anime, but I still find it fascinating how hereditary hair colors and eye colors could work in this world if they ever expanded on it. Why do all three Schnee children have white hair when Jaques's natural black hair would be dominant? Why do the colors for blue and red eyes combine to create purple instead of Yang inheriting just one of her parents eyes? Do skin tones correlate to a specific region? It's all pretty interesting to me.

Did you know that when my sister and I started tackling the genetics of RWBY, we genuinely debated whether or not to get rid of unnatural hair and eye colors? If they weren’t such well-established tropes, there’s a good chance that Emerald would have ended up a brunette.

Anyway, back to green hair.

When we talk about colors in animals, there are two main ways of going about it: pigment-producing cells, and structural colors via wave interference.

Chromatophores are cells that make color, found in ectothermic animals such as amphibians, fish, turtles, crocodilians, squamates, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Chromatophores are classified based on their hues: xanthophores (yellow), erythrophores (red), leucophores (white), melanophores (black/brown), and iridophores (reflective/iridescent).

Endothermic animals, such as mammals and birds, get their colors primarily from melanocytes (eumelanin, which produces brown and black; and pheomelanin, which produces red and yellow), and from carotenoids (red-, yellow-, and orange-producing pigments found in plants, algae, and some bacteria and fungi).

It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but it’ll do for now. There are a few outliers that I didn’t mention, like the cyan biochromes found in mandarin dragonets, but the overview above is largely accurate for our discussion.

Structural colors, on the other hand, have nothing to do with biochemistry. They can best be described as a neat physics trick.

Microscopically-structured surfaces that are fine enough to interfere with visible light can affect how wavelengths are reflected (and thus, how our eyes perceive and interpret color). In Morpho butterflies, the shape of the wing-scales (ridged, conical branches) causes the wavelength of light to be staggered and reflected at different heights. This out-of-phase reflection cancels out the longer red light, but leaves the shorter blue light intact.

Wavelengths of light, and how they’re reflected, thanks to the ridged shape of Morpho scales. | Source: Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature?

This is common in a lot of animals with blue or green coloration. Blue jays, peacocks, mandrills, weevils, even chameleons, use structural coloration to achieve their flashy blue and green color palettes.

This is because pigments, biologically speaking, are expensive and time-consuming to manufacture. It’s much more energetically-efficient to use a workaround, like hijacking physical structures, to produce those colors.

That being said, there are some exceptions.

Turacoverdin is a copper uroporphyrin pigment found in turacos, a family of green birds native to Africa.

The olivewing butterflies are a group of lepidopterans that utilize a blue bile pigment called pterobilin.

A dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view of the Menelaus blue morpho (Morpho menelaus huebneri). | Source: Wikipedia contributor user:Archaeodontosaurus.

A dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view of the Bates olivewing (Nessaea batesii). | Source: Wikipedia contributor user:Archaeodontosaurus.

Outside of these fairly rare occurrences, blue and green are more likely to be byproducts of physics rather than chemistry. The odds of natural selection producing a blue-pigmented mammal (either through a genetic mutation to an already-existing trait, or inventing new chemistry from scratch) are pretty much nonexistent.

However, RWBY’s universe isn’t dictated exclusively by evolution via natural selection. It has gods.

Gods which can teleport between places without resulting in local spacetime anomalies. Gods which casually violate the laws of conservation by creating and obliterating matter.

There’s no reason to assume that conventional biology in our universe would be applicable to this setting.

Screw it. RWBY already has six-limbed vertebrates and floating islands, and it’s not like I haven’t wasted hours of my life trying to figure out how to make those work. White hair and purple eyes are the least egregious thing I’ve had to deal with.

As far as hair color goes, my suggestion would be to expand the number of pigments, and make some changes to the genes that control hair, like MC1R.

Green hair could be achieved by having blond as a base template (low amounts of eumelanin and pheomelanin) with higher amounts of dysmelanin, our hypothetical blue pigment. Various shades of purple could be the result of dysmelanin and pheomelanin, paired with certain amounts of eumelanin to make it darker or lighter.

As for white hair, I guess it could be some sort of rare genetic mutation that exclusively affects melanin production in the hair follicles? Maybe something analogous to the mutations found in the LYST and AIM1 genes of polar bears. Or perhaps there could be a fourth type of pigment (let’s call it leucomelanin) that controls for the expression of white and gray in hair.

We could wave our hands and say that Jacques is heterozygous for black hair (Bw), whereas Willow is homozygous for white (ww).

Every time Jacques and Willow have kids, there’s a 50% chance that kid would have white hair. Statistically, there’s no reason why they couldn’t have had three white-haired kids back-to-back, since the odds of that are basically a coin flip each time.

As for Yang’s eye color being purple when her parents’ are blue and red—I guess we could chalk it up to incomplete or partial dominance in heterozygous offspring (Rb), from two homozygous parents (RR and bb)? I’m not sure. Genetics really isn’t my forte, so I’d have to think it over.

On a parting note—I haven’t finished developing the full list of phenotypes unique to each ethnicity yet. But I did decide on a couple. Red, copper, and auburn hair are mainly found in people of Matsu descent (Northern Anima). That includes Pyrrha, Nora, and Roman.

[hamliet]

RWBY and the Philosopher’s Stone

So, I finally watched RWBY after a friend name-dropped several characters and I was like wait... those names are alchemical. I was still pleasantly surprised to find out just how deeply rooted in alchemy the story is, from its characters to its plot structure. 

Background: alchemical structure is a type of story structure that focuses on inner transformation via outward obstacles. You can find it in literary traditions across the world, from Moxiang Tongxiu’s novels to A Song of Ice and Fire to Harry Potter to The Witcher to Trollhunters. Carl Jung incorporated it into his psychology. Daoism plays heavily into Chinese alchemy. The Wizard of Oz, one of RWBY’s main inspirations, is a blatant alchemy allegory. It’s everywhere, so it’s not surprising RWBY is drawing heavily on alchemy, but it is neat to see how blatant the references are. 

Thematically, the goal of alchemy is a metaphorical philosopher’s stone. The philosopher’s stone, in legend, is said to produce an elixir of eternal life, and to be able to transform “baser” metals into gold. 

In stories, when positive, as it usually is, this usually results in a character either overcoming death (see, Harry Potter) and/or transforming the world and others around him (Harry Potter saving his friends, etc.) But the journey from how they get from prima materia (raw material) to the philosopher’s stone? Now that’s the story. 

(When reversed, a metaphorical stone results in something that can destroy everything; see: the One Ring, also Salem, because Salem’s whole thing is that she cheapened the process of life and death, while alchemy states that death is a necessary part of achieving life.)

So, mostly I’m gonna talk about the symbolism I’ve seen so far and make some predictions for what’s likely to happen next in the story, and for the characters.

Each of the four main characters has a name that corresponds to one of the four phases of the Magnum Opus. “Blake Belladonna” refers to the nigredo, or black stage; “Weiss Schnee” to the albedo, or white stage; “Yang Xiao Long” to the citrinitas or yellow phase, and “Ruby Rose” to the final stage, rubedo, or red (Ruby’s name is quite literally taken from that stage). Naming them for these stages shows a dual purpose: while Ruby is the central character, she needs her team around her, and Team RWBY will save the world together. Team JNR is also a part of the stages, but I’ll get to what they represent later on. 

Jung associated each of the major stages with a major archetype. The major stages can be further broken up into a total of seven or twelve or even fourteen stages. Most commonly you’ll see George Ripley’s Twelve Gates referenced, and I believe that’s what RWBY is referencing as well since its allusions are pretty perfect. The "gates” or stages also sometimes overlap, especially when different characters might be at different stages. 

Nigredo: Seasons 1-3 

Alchemy begins by gathering the prima materia, or raw material. The characters assembling in season 1 is more of the gathering than the actual transformative process. But once we hit season 2, we dive straight into the process. 

Calcination occurs during the climax of season 2, during the fight on the train. Season 3 contains dissolution, or the washing of impurities through the exposure of certain secrets (like the fall maiden) as well as the literal dissolution of Beacon Academy, and separation (the end of the season, when Team RWBY is scattered). 

Narratively, Jung associated nigredo with the shadow, with someone’s dark night of the soul, their low point. In historical artistic depictions, often part of nigredo is dismemberment... which happens to Yang when she saves Blake from Adam. See, Splendor Solis: 

The goal of the shadow is that it should be integrated with, accepted, rather than denied. Facing the shadow is a necessary part of growth and ultimate transformation... and the point is, through facing the shadow, hope and light come.  

Peacock’s Tail: Seasons 4-5

Okay, I lied, there are sometimes five phases in alchemy. At the very end of nigredo, just before albedo, there is sometimes a flash of light, of rainbows and colors, that give hope. It’s not quite a phase, more of a moment, but it’s referred to as the peacock’s tail. While this is less plot-related, it does make sense that this is the point in the story where Team RJNR is formed. Why? Because look at their colors:

Ruby: red, black

Jaune: yellow, blue

Ren: green, purple

Nora: white, pink, orange

Between them we’ve pretty much got the full rainbow. 

We also have, in Blake’s arc, the introduction of Ilia Amitola, whose last name is the Souix word for “rainbow.” 

Albedo: Seasons 5-7

Albedo is associated with the anima or animus, or the part of ourselves that we are lacking (it’s generally gendered as the male within a female and the female within a male, but please understand he’s not talking literally and more in terms of traditional qualities ascribed as feminine or masculine that we may repress), which more than fits the fact that this stage begins while team RJNR is literally wandering around a continent called Anima. 

Conjunction is a term in which all the separated parts that can be salvaged from the Nigredo come together. Obviously the main incident for this is the fight at the end of volume 5, but I’d argue it overlaps a bit with volume 4 and even with separation.

The characters are only able to come together again once they’ve accepted aspects of their shadows. Yang deals with hers in Raven and Blake with the White Fang. Nora and Ren’s fight at their home village represents them dealing with their shadow as well, and also relates to conjunction because conjunction is the stage where the first chemical wedding comes into play. A chemical wedding is the joining of alchemical partners, and while I’ll probably discuss ships in another post (there’s a lot of set up alchemy-wise), I’ll just reference the obvious one here: 

The fountain image and a person shooting arrows is some pretty uncannily similar imagery to the fight at Nora and Ren’s home village. 

Next up in albedo is putrefication (focus on death and rotting). We see this with the encounter with the Apathy, who look like skeletons, cause death, etc. We’re also introduced to Maria Calaveras, aka the Grimm Reaper. (Her last name also means “skull” aka the white results of putrefication). 

Congelation requires a lot of water, and we see this in the focus on Atlas, wherein snow (water) is everywhere. The point of congelation is to separate the thin from the thick, the latter of which will of course become the Philosopher’s Stone. We see this through Team RWBY’s break with the Ace-Ops (aka the Aesops), whose simplistic morality and rule-following are not going to bring about character growth or eternal life. 

Citrinitas: Volume 7-?

Citrinitas focuses on the light, or fire. That immediately after congelation, a giant whale brimming with yellow appears in the white-colored Atlas is not a coincidence. Citrinitas is associated with the sage or the wise old man/woman, so Maria and Pietro fill this role. 

The first stage of citrinitas is cibation, which involves feeding with fresh material. I’d actually say that it seems quite possible cibation overlaps with congelation, in that there is a focus on food and on training with the Ace-Ops early in Volume 7. The next phases are sublimation and fermentation. I can see potential for sublimation in that it essentially is when solid becomes air (think of the setting of Atlas), but it’s too soon to say what this means for the plot. 

Fermentation, though... well, things will get worse before they get better. :’) 

Rubedo: 

Finally, Rubedo is associated with the fully individualized self. We can assume each of the main seven will come into their own, confident of whom they are. Oscar should, as well, and probably will have fully control over his body by the end (ie Oz will likely... find rest or whatever).

The stages of rubedo are exaltation (the creation of the stone after two contraries meet), multiplication (the stones’ properties increase), and projection (the stone’s abilities are projected over the entire world, aka presumably RWBY will save the world). 

The most common way to display multiplication is through, well, a lot of couplings. It’s why the main characters ending single seems extremely unlikely to me. Even if it seems a fairy tale ending, well.... *gestures to everything about RWBY being inspired by fairy tales* Fairy tales were also often alchemy based. But ships will get their own meta, because I actually don’t really ship much besides Renora and am for once not super invested in anything, but I can see the set-up for four or five ships.

I also want to highlight the other symbolic names that stood out to me: 

Ironwood. While I know Ironwood references the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (tin being one of seven metals associated with alchemy), his name also references a second metal: Iron. Tin and Iron are the two of the three basest metals in alchemy (the other is lead). Iron in particular is ruled by Mars, the god of war, meaning it is associated with violence. It’s not a coincidence that pretty much from the second Ironwood is introduced, the concept of war comes up, and his entire character has gone on to be the embodiment of the military and violence. 

Tai Xiao Long. His name literally means “sun,” and Ruby’s mother is defined by her silver eyes (silver being a color traditionally associated with the moon). Ruby is thus considered the child of the Solar King and Lunar Queen, two mythical alchemical figures who together create the “Philosophical Child,” or the personified philosopher’s stone.

Pietro Polendina: his name literally means “stone,” and Penny is his philosopher’s stone. Penny is arguably a reference to copper, another of the seven metals, as copper references compassion and love, which seems like Penny to me. 

Qrow and Raven Branwen: crows and ravens are symbolic of nigredo, or the black phase; death, decay, etc. However, within the story I think Qrow and Raven fulfill this role as the Jungian shadows of hunters as a whole and of Yang. 

Sun Wukong: obviously a reference to the sun. 

Emerald Sustrai: Emerald is a reference to the Emerald Tablet, which in alchemical lore is a tablet containing the secrets of alchemy, as written down by Hermes (in legend). Hermes is, of course, Mercury. Everything about alchemy stems from the Emerald Tablet, so Emerald should be important. In addition, green is the color of the prima materia, so it references Emerald’s arc in being shaped and molded by Cinder. 

Mercury Black: Mercury as the mythological god is the legendary founder of alchemy, so like, he’s important. Mercury is also the third most important metal in alchemy, after gold and silver. It is necessary to achieving the philosopher’s stone so, like Emerald, Mercury is probably important. Mercury is of particular note because mercurial characters are common in alchemical literature: they make stuff happen. Think of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, for example. Mercury transcends death symbolically (you can see the roots of this in Mercury’s backstory with his assassin father): it is difficult to pin down and can quickly shift from liquid to solid. Thus, in alchemy, mercury can shift between life and death. 

Mercury is also a noted servant of the white queen. I initially thought this a surface reference to Salem’s appearance, and it might be, but Salem is more associated with a black queen in the recurring chess motif, and I don’t see Mercury staying on her side (mercury isn’t fixed, after all; that’s its central tenet), so I kind of wonder if the “white queen” will be later revealed. Or maybe it just is a surface mention.

[masterweaverx]

RWBY Parents from Best to Worst

That’s right, everybody, I’m a-going to rank how terrible these people are to and for their kids! For the sake of covering as many parents as I can, I am defining ‘parent’ as either ‘legal guardian’ or ‘the one that gave birth to you’, and excluding relationships that are explicitly something else. That does mean that we’re going to miss out on some very important people, though, so before we begin, let’s have some Honorable Mentions!

Yang Xiao Long and Winter Schnee: Professional Momsisters

“That’s why big sisters come first, to protect the ones that come after.” I don’t know who said that to these two, if anybody actually did, but it’s a quote that most definitely applies to them. Not only would they take a bullet (or a sword, or a fireball) for their younger siblings, they took the time out to give them affection and training that they needed when their own parents weren’t quite doing the job. If I absolutely had to rank one of them as the better momsister, I’d say Yang, but that’s really only because Yang had less to deal with overall; a depressed single dad not being able to pull himself together just doesn’t stack up with an abusive powermonger, a self-loathing drunkard, and all the institutional bigotry and pressure of Atlas. Plus, you know, Winter went into the military for a bit. Still, pretty good track record considering!

Klein Sieben: Doing the work of seven good dads

Look, there is only one reason Klein wasn’t listed before the momsisters, and that reason is that he is technically the hired help (and could therefore become the fired help). He is, hands down, a better surrogate parent than Yang and Winter, providing guidance and care to all the Schneeblings and very effectively undoing the damage Jacques Gele (HE DOES NOT GET TO BE CALLED SCHNEE!) did to them. And he even helped out Willow! If he was allowed to do more, he would absolutely be My Real Dad of the year.

Qrow Branwen: “The only one that gets to be sad in this house is me!”

Qrow has a lot of flaws. Like, so so many flaws. As Yang said in a noncanon spinoff, he’s cool but not exactly a role model. Thing is, you don’t have to be a role model to be a good parent--you just have to make sure your kids (or nieces in this case) get good advice and the opportunity to grow into the best versions of themselves they can be. And when Qrow’s not beating himself up or drowning his sorrows, he’s actually very good at helping Yang and Ruby. Honestly the only reason he’s not on the actual list is because he’s technically not a parent.

Uncle Copper: Adopting a blind kid automatically makes you cool

So here we have a character that appeared in a single flashback in the novels, but from what we do know he was pretty likely to be a good guy. Like, raising a blind kid is hard enough; raising a blind kid in a desert after their actual parents got nommed by sand is so, so much more difficult. And yet, this guy said ‘If nobody else is going to adopt this kid I will!’ and by all measures he was a very caring and loving guy. Also, shout-out to the tribe, who took Fox in after Copper got killed by some maniac (and also killed said maniac). Fox has had a rough life, but it’s been filled with supportive people. Not everyone can say that.

Starr Sanzang: She put up with Sun

Sure, she’s only had one scene in one novel, but Starr showed patience and caring and... probably did a lot to make sure Sun stays as aggressively cheery and patient as he is. Plus she’s got a dojo in Vacuo now... okay, I’ll be honest, I don’t know nearly enough about her to really assess her. Still, as far as cousins go, Sun Wukong could do a lot worse. And there are the implications of their motifs to factor in...

Rhodes: If you’d done even just a little bit more--!

So, reasonably, what would you do when you see a little girl enslaved with a shock collar? Would you (A) get the girl out of there, (B) arrest the woman doing it, (C) try to get the girl therapy, or (D) all of the above? If you picked (E) secretly train the girl in swordplay so she can join a huntsman academy when she comes of age, then congratulations! You’ve given her hope! Good for you! And what if she snaps after five years of literal torture, kills her abuser, and then turns to you for comfort and/or approval? Welp, obviously she’s an irredeemable criminal and you have to bring her in, crushing all the faith she had in you and herself.

Seriously Rhodes, dropped the ball hard on that one. I’m only mentioning you because you had such a serious impact on Cinder’s development.

Brother Gods: Creating and destroying entire species

Like, okay. Look. These are the two that made humanity, so an argument could be made that they’re humanity’s parents. But, by the strict and arbitrary rules I have selected, they aren’t parents. And even if they were, they would be just the worst sort of parents possible. Darkbro is bad enough, what with viewing only strength as valuable and creating the Grimm and, you know, annihilating humanity that one time, but he’s at least honest and honorable. Not like the cryptic Lightbro, who doesn’t bother making sure people understand him, who doesn’t even keep his own promises to his brother... I get that they’re basically overpowered children. Yeah, they are. Still... kinda terrible.

So, now that that’s all done, let’s get to the actual list! After the break, so you don’t get stuck scrolling a lot. RWBY parents, from best to worst, are as follows:

23. Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc: Two moms are better than none!

If I’m rating all the parents, and I am, then I have to acknowledge their flaws. And... these two don’t have any! Okay, fine, they used Adrian in a criminal scheme that one time (and that was literally just asking him to cry on command) and maybe Terra’s overworked and, to be fair, parenting a young kid is a lot different than parenting a teenager. But not only did they support their kid, they helped out all the kids that needed to room with them for a while! Saphron may also qualify as a momsister, depending on how well the Arcs managed their massive-numbered horde of kids. Look, the point is: Excellent parents. Bam.

22. Yatsuhashi's Parents: Their slipups weren’t their fault

When your kid can wipe your memories and you don’t know about it, you’re bound to get a few mistakes down the line. Luckily for everyone, after the whole incident with Hiyoko Yatsu came clean, and his parents made absolutely sure that he understood (A) that having such an ability was a big responsibility and (B) that even though he really screwed up he was NOT evil. Given the man that Yatsuhashi is now, I’m pretty confident in calling them great parents--even if they only appeared in a book flashback.

21. Coco's Dad: He exists!

That’s... honestly all I really know about him. He’s mentioned once in the books, and Coco has a few brothers. I’m kind of just assuming he’s a good parent from that, even if he didn’t figure out how to help Coco with her claustrophobia. So... yeah, shrug, Coco’s got a dad.

20: Ghira and Kali Belladonna: Actually marvelous people

Loving. Caring. Mentoring, protective. You may be asking why these two aren’t lower on the list, given that they are absolutely great for Blake, and I’ll have to admit that they only really made one slipup--letting Adam talk with Blake.

And okay, look. The thing about people like Adam is that they don’t start out showing their true colors. It’s always a slow, gentle broil. Blake was young and stupid, Adam was cute and edgy, and these parents want their daughter to be happy. So not twigging on what Adam really was--or at least not being able to properly convince Blake--that’s entirely understandable. And they did instill her with a strong enough moral code to leave when enough was enough, and they absolutely welcomed her back with open arms. Frankly, if the lower-listing parents didn’t exist, I would happily say they are the best parents in the show.

19. Pietro Polendina: He took Penny’s death flags

When you carve out part of your literal soul to bring your girl back from the dead, you get MAJOR parenting props. And even beyond that, Pietro is an absolutely caring and supportive father to everyone’s favorite bundle of sunshine. Even when she’s put in the rough position she was in, Pietro did his best to help her out. His one big flaw, though, is being overprotective and a bit presumptive. He does want Penny to live her best life, but he also can be just a touch too quick to say he knows what’s best for her. To his credit, when he’s called out on it, he does mend his ways. And he’s at least better then the GENERAL...

18. Salem and Ozma: Good parents, surprisingly!

Sure, Salem decided that world conquest was a good idea and wanted to put down anybody that wasn’t directly from her bloodline. Sure, she psychologically manipulated her husband when he had doubts. And, being fair, it’s highly likely that her four daughters were killed in the crossfire of her and Ozma’s little tuff. But! That was likely an accident, she’s been shown to still clearly mourn their passing, and before that point she absolutely loved and adored the girls. Ozma gets points for being a generally good person who fell in love with her before she became unstable and, honestly, was just trying to help his girls escape... and hey, he blames himself for their deaths. As does Salem.

Just because they’re kind of directly responsible for a LOT of Remnant’s woes doesn’t mean they aren’t good parents!

17. Will and Meg Scarlatina: Estranged but loving...

Yes, I know Rooster Teeth hasn’t officially confirmed that Bill is Will. I still believe though! Also it makes for a great picture, in any case.

Look, you can be the best and most loving parents ever--and from what we saw in the novels Will was definitely loving--but if you split up, your kid is going to get a little stressed. And hey, it’s not like these two were terrible people! Velvet’s just got a lot going on because of things entirely out of her control. Parents are people too, but sometimes the stress of one situation will leak out into another. Just... give people time to adapt.

16. Nicholas Schnee: The man, the legend, the titan!

Nicholas Schnee is the rockstar success story of Remnant. Some guy from Mantle put in all the work to make the SDC, and honestly from what little we know about him he was probably a great guy! But if we’re registering parental goodness, well... he wasn’t quite smart enough to warn Willow away from abusive gold diggers, and he’s not present when the story starts. So, yeah, even if he was a good parent otherwise--and I think he would be--he kinda... didn’t put in the work to prevent Willow breaking later. Still. Not deliberately terrible!

15. Li and An Ren: Don’t die in front of your kids, folks!

Seriously, it traumatizes them, especially if there’s a Grimm assault going on at the same time. Oh, double-especially if you reassure them that everything will be fine literally the second before the roof collapses on your head. And... well, okay, you couldn’t help your son and some random girl being the only survivors...

In all seriousness, that whole situation was absolutely out of their control. And before their deaths they were shown to be loving, wise, giving good advice to Lie Ren and helping him understand what the right thing to do was. Honestly, if they hadn’t died in front of him he’d be a lot better, mentally speaking. His trauma is not their fault. Plus Li went out distracting the big Grimm so Lie could run. No greater love hath man, indeed.

14. Summer Rose: Loving mother, ticking trauma bomb

When she was around, Summer Rose was probably the best mom Yang and Ruby could ask for. Sure, everyone could be exaggerating a little on how great a person she was--fond memories and grief can do that--but even taking that into account, she was probably a great and wonderful woman to be raised by. And hey, it turns out the reason she vanished was to go confront basically the Devil Herself so her kids wouldn’t have to live in a world where she existed! I can totally get the logic behind that.

And to be fair, “I’m going to do this on my own so nobody else suffers” is a pretty common character flaw among the RWBY cast. There are entire arcs where each character learns to overcome it. Still, wandering off on your lonesome without telling anyone was not the smartest move, Summer. Especially if you expected to die--which, you know, Devil Herself, high probability. And you know, if you had died, that would be bad enough, but now Ruby’s practically certain to have to fight your grimmified self. At least she figured out what happened to you before Salem decided to hammer in the trauma button, so she’ll be a little more ready, but... seriously.

13. The Arc Parents: Look, you try juggling eight kids!

To be fair, neither Arc parent has appeared on screen, but we can derive some of their traits from their kids. Jaune’s father said women like confident men. Jaune’s mother said strangers are friends you haven’t met yet. Jaune’s sister moved out of the house and (it’s implied) was happier for it. Jaune himself took his family’s ancestral weapon and ran off to Beacon to become a hero without any training whatsoever....

I get the impression that these two are not horrible parents, but they aren’t really stellar ones either. They slip up, don’t understand their children, give some really bad advice (as well as really good advice), and... look, it’s kind of middle of the road here. The Arcs could be wonderful people that just weren’t ready for the complexities of raising eight kids. I come from a big family myself, I know it can be stressful. And their kids turned out well anyway, so...

12. The Mother of Pyrrha Nikos: You taught your girl too well

Hero complexes are funny things. And Pyrrha Nikos... in retrospect, she was really hiding a lot of insecurities under that facade. Laying it all at this woman’s feet is unfair, I’ll admit, a lot of that came from being The Mistral Champion. But... with stories and fairy tales of heroes, it’s not hard to imagine a genuinely loving mother making sure her daughter knew right from wrong, always knew to act with mercy and protect the weak, and made her hardline into being a hero at the cost of her own... sense of self. It wouldn’t even be something either of them noticed, really. Good people can make bad choices sometimes.

11: Ilia's Parents: Oh god, can good people make bad choices...

So the idea of getting Ilia up to Atlas for a better life, that rocks (if you assume the propaganda to be true). And I’m certain her parents absolutely did what they did out of love. But what they did, you see, was tell Ilia to hide a very important part of herself from anybody who could find out, since it was likely she would be kicked out of the school she was in if people found out she was a faunus.

Which actually, did a lot of damage.

I mean look at Ilia now! She has trouble expressing herself until she explodes, she follows a crowd instead of her own morals, she broke down in tears when she finally did the right thing... Conceal Don’t Feel is never good advice, and these two went on and said ‘Honey, because of racism, you have to hide the fact you literally change color when you have emotions.’ Oh, and then they died offscreen--again, not their fault, but boy howdy did it give Ilia a complex.

10. Taiyang Xiao Long: Slumped at just the wrong time

Honestly, Tai as he is now is a wonderful dad. Supportive of his daughters in their time of need, able to lift their mood with a tasteless joke or two, frankly if we were assessing just how they were in the moment... I’d still be a little critical of his refusal to talk about the girls’ mothers, but hey, that’s minor. Compared to, you know...

Okay, so this needs serious addressing. Taiyang cannot be blamed for falling into a depressive slump. People can hurt, and need time to heal. That said, his depressive slump is at the root of Yang’s many issues, and frankly if she hadn’t had to pull herself together for Ruby she would be a major mess. It’s a bad situation all round, even if it’s not his fault.

9. Willow Schnee: “Kids, don’t wind up like me.”

Drowning her sorrows isn’t the best way to handle being stuck in an abusive marriage, but it was the best way Willow could think of. And, yeah, that really cut into her skills as a mom... but despite that, she did her darnedest to make sure her kids had what they needed to free themselves. Heck, once Jacques was out of the picture, she even pulled herself together and risked her life to save them! A broken women, to be sure, but not a shattered one.

8. Neptune's Mother: She exists!

Being fair, there’s not a lot to go on here. We know Neptune’s mother is a lawyer (insert evil lawyer joke), that their family are famous swimmers, and that his brother caused his hydrophobia by tossing him into the water. It does paint a bit of a picture, though, of everyone having expectations for Neptune that he was not able to live up to. Pretty poor parenting, if it’s true.

7. Nora Valkyrie's Mom: Come get your girl!

Literally the only factoid we have about Mama Valkyrie is that she abandoned her to the Grimm. We don’t know when this was, and it’s feasible it’s a case of ‘Oh No I Lost Track Of My Daughter In The Panic!’ But given we see young Nora scavenging for scraps of food... I’m not optimistic on her parenting skills.

6. Raven Branwen: "I wasn’t part of your life, how could I ruin it?”

Raven is just not a good mom at all. And, surprisingly, she seems to know it. Or that’s one interpretation of her character. The thing about Raven is that she plays her cards close to chest. We still don’t know why she left her daughter, and we only have inklings about the reasoning behind her behavior once they reunited. In the end, though... she did concede to Yang, she did apologize for something, and there’s a very deliberate indication that a lot of her behavior is a mask to both others and herself. So, terrible mother, for the moment, but self-aware.

5. Salem's Father: Explicitly noted as cruel

We get a bit more about Salem’s father from ‘Fairy Tales Of Remnant’, how he became possessive of the last remnant of his wife and locked her away in a tower. From what we know of him, that’s all he did--lock her away and not let her go. Still makes him a terrible dad. And with this, we transition firmly into the most definitively abusive parent figures. Everyone before this might have the excuse of not realizing what was going on or having their own damage, but now we’ve got parents actively deciding to make their kids’ lives worse.

4. Jacques Gelé: HE DOES NOT GET TO BE CALLED SCHNEE!

His children are property, to be manipulated and traded for the benefit of the company he married into, and any defiance is to be quelled instantly. He is manipulative, scheming, abusive, and frankly the worst sort of scumbag to ever wear a white suit. He does have the single redeeming quality of only leaning into the punishment if it benefits him; nobody would ever accuse the man of being needlessly cruel. His name is Jacques, and you will hate him... especially on the rare occasions he actually has a point.

3. The Marigolds: There’s no peppy tagline, they’re just mean

There’s not a picture of these jerks on the wiki, so you’ll have to make do with the woman that is no longer their daughter. See all that empty space around her? That’s about as close as they ever got. May spells out how much they hated her for having a heart, and how little they cared about her as a person, in one epic line. And even if they have other redeeming qualities (unlikely) we can tell they’d probably still be terrible parents because of how sleazy May’s cousin is. Honestly, for once I’m glad some characters don’t get pictures. They don’t deserve to be remembered. They aren’t even the cool kind of evil, they’re just... gross.

2. Marcus Black: Look if you train your kid to be a killer...

...you’re going to have to expect them to kill you. I mean, you basically ripped apart Mercury’s legs, man. He had to get cyberlegs. Also, you used your semblance to steal his. Which, given that semblances come from aura, and that aura is a manifestation of the soul, is kinda... that’s a deeply personal and intimate violation. Sure, you got your assassin kid. And can we talk about the fact that Marcus was an assassin? It’s not a pretty job. I guess I can see all the abuse--physical and mental--as a good way to train up another assassin, but... geeze, if that’s your goal, why did you use your own kid?! Why not hire some angsty teenager?! Yeah, no, Markus Black stood high on my list of parental monsters... and was only toppled by the arrival of one other.

1. Madame of the Glass Unicorn: She only appeared in one episode and she rocketed to the top of this list, that should tell you something

Let’s be clear here: What Madame did to Cinder is bad enough. It was literally slavery. Enforced by a shock collar. And because the collar looked like a necklace, she pulled it off in front of I don’t know how many clients. Granted, said clients were racists, why else would they be customers at a ‘We Do Not Serve Faunus’ hotel, but keeping her torture just out of the public eye very clearly shows both that she knew what she was doing was illegal and that she was clever enough to avoid detection.

Oh... and then there are her birth daughters.

With Cinder, she was abusive to a dangerous degree. With her daughters, she was permissive, not only allowing but encouraging them to bully their adoptive sister. The whole point of parenthood is to teach your children how to become the best version of themselves, but Madame didn’t even bother to instill a semblance of morality in these girls. She used them as extensions of her will, and they obliviously played along because that was all they knew.

You’d think the biggest monster on the show would be the Grimm woman, but no--it’s some random lady with a hotel.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness 27.1

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I wasn't the sort to dwell on what Weiss had wanted from me. Well I totally was. I dwelt on everything. I was a dweller. But I was also the sort to get my workout in anyways.

Really, my thoughts were on Eminence and her partner. The people I had killed. They hadn't acted like gang members or at least not like the picture I had in my head of gang members. What with the pleas for me to spare their lives and all.

Well maybe the picture I had of gang members was of non-people. Then when I encountered some people and killed them I was surprised to find out that they were the same as anybody else. They had died the same as everybody else would, or at least most people would; together, if they were lucky, and begging for their lives, besides.

Qrow wheeled out on me while I was practicing my Limit Breaks and just watched me move around for a long time.

"Enjoying the view?" I asked.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"How are you feeling, kid."

"Like a murderer and a liar."

"We both know why we had to keep it from Ruby. Now we just have one more favor from Ms. Malachite."

"Assuming she keeps her word. I don't trust these criminals as much as you do."

"She will. She has to uphold deals she makes in front of her men in good faith. Or else they'll start to wonder about their own paychecks. It's a little bit of honor amongst thieves. It's more to prevent backstabbing than out of any real sense of honor, though. Trust that."

"Gee, if you say it like that I really have no choice."

"Tell me how you really feel."

"I feel… all kinds of fucked up. I want to talk to Ruby about it but I can't and it's leaving me more fucked up."

"You know why we can't talk to Ruby about it. As far as she is concerned it's just one favor. Scroll keys out of Don Corneo."

"I'm supposed to just live with this. Live with myself."

"Yeah kid. Just like the rest of us."

"The thing is I think I can do it. I think I can do it easily , too. That scares me."

"Sounds too complicated for me. It sounds like you're struggling; just the same as I do."

I grunted and swung my sword at nothing. "It's not quite the same. And all I have to talk to about it is you."

"Easy kid. Have a drink. Relax. There's nothing you can change about it now and nothing you would want to anyways."

I inhaled a shaking breath. He was right. Qrow needed legs. I had to be the one to kill them. It had to be done. No one of my friends would have done it. Didn't that make it wrong? None of them would have approved. I already had the answers I needed. I just didn't like them.

"Who were they? What did they do to deserve having me come after them?"

"Does it really matter? Come on have a drink."

"I don't want to drink anymore."

"You need to relax somehow."

"I am. This is what I do to relax now."

This was how I'd relax for the rest of my life. I swung the sword fast enough that it made several satisfying thwump sounds in the air.

"Well, we wanted to discuss the matter of infiltrating Don Corneo's workplace with you." It was Ozpin. Someone I wanted to talk to even less.

"What about it? We don't need to risk Ruby or Nora now. And I don't need to wear a dress. We have Yang."

"I'm not super comfortable with my niece going in there."

"But you're comfortable with me killing people." I wiped my brow and glared at Qrow. "Your priorities are fucked."

"Easy on the language, now." Ozpin said with Oscar's mouth. "It's good that we have only one favor between us and getting Qrow back on his feet. Then, thanks to Ms. Xiao Long and Ms. Schnee being with us again, things are better now than they were yesterday."

"What does better for you even mean?" I wondered. "How do you handle the lying and the murder?"

"So long as they don't ask us about it, it's hardly lying. And from what you told Qrow you did kill somebody in a near bar fight. The story you told your friends merely bordered on the truth." Ozpin lectured. "As for killing it never gets any easier. And that's a good thing. Though we take life we don't make any light of it." I exhaled hard. It was no new advice. "And we don't make sport of it. I heard you encountered one of the people drafted to Salem's side."

"The Scorpion."

"Yes. Tyrian. There are others too. Others like Hazel Rainart. They would not be so disturbed by violence as you are. Let them serve as a counterpoint. Would the man who attacked Ruby and yourself be upset if they had killed someone? Perhaps. But not like you are now."

"I get it. I get it." I sighed. "You wanted to talk about the infiltration mission. I vote Yang."

"We should discuss it." Qrow interceded.

"We are." Ozpin and I said at the same time. That pissed me off.

"I don't like the idea of her in there."

"You think I have a chance in a dress? I can rock a dress but I'm missing a certain je ne sais quoi that Yang has."

"You didn't want Ms. Rose or Ms. Valkyrie to do it. Why Ms. Xaio Long?"

"Je ne sais quoi."

"Yes. I suppose so." Ozpin relented. "Over Ms. Schnee too, I suppose. Our Target has a predilection for the type who frequent such places. Ms. Xaio Long is a match for, at least in looks."

"She looks like a party girl who knows how to earn a little extra cash is what you're saying." Qrow wasn't happy about it. "I get it though. Maybe she is our best bet."

"She bragged about going clubbing at Beacon. She has experience I don't. Plus she has infinitely more time spent in a female body than me. She knows how to use it better than I can fathom."

"We should have a backup plan," Ozpin insisted.

"She can wear a wire and everyone else can be waiting outside. There's five of us in huntsman-shape. Speaking of shouldn't they be here for this conversation. Part of being open with everyone."

"I wanted to have a quick think-tank and see what you thought." Ozpin dismissed my jab at him. "Qrow trusts your instincts."

"I don't like any of it. I think somebody is going to get hurt. I think Don Corneo from what we know is a scumbag."

"And what do you think of Leonardo?"

I faltered for a moment. "I don't trust him. I don't like how Cinder and her allies snuck past him." If Ozpin thought hard about it he would see how I don't trust him either. I snuck past him. I could have gotten myself or somebody else killed.

And he picked me over some more qualified student who had a better, more authentic resume. He chose me anyways. Why? Was he incompetent? I sure used to be. Or could he actually see my potential and what I would become and thought it was worth the risk.

If so, then it was a hell of a risk. I could have been one of Salem's agents if only I wasn't such a failure. He trusted too easily in any case that was kind to him.

"If you don't mind me asking, uh- Mr. Arc, how did you get as strong as you are?"

It was Oscar this time and I was stumped for the question. I found my gaze flicking over his head to Qrow for a second who only offered me a shrug.

"What do you mean?" I wondered. "And it's just Jaune."

"Jaune, then. It's your mentality. You have this mindset that sets you apart from everyone else."

"I wasn't always this jaded. If you want strength look at Ruby." Emotional or physical.

"It's not that or at least not just that. I've already asked her too. She's something special. You are too, though. Even with the fate of the world as it is, you still train day in and day out and do everything you have to, even if it hurts you. You've even killed people. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're not afraid of the dirty work."

"It's not something to be proud of but Qrow's done it too."

"But he's not our age. Or your age, at least."

"I have to. I suppose. Or my friends, those that are still here, will bite it too. That keeps me going. What's left of my team and Ruby's team too."

"Can you teach me?"

"How to have friends? Haven't got a clue. Sorry."

"Not that. I need somebody to teach me swordsmanship. How to use my weapon. Or start to until Qrow is back up."

Qrow gave an enormous sigh from the chair. For my part I hesitated again. I wasn't the sort, didn't have the training myself. But this was one of those things I wasn't sure I could say no to.

The right thing to do would be to teach him. Pyrrha would want me to. Ruby might even ask me to. That pretty much sealed it.

"I won't take it easy on you." I drew the long sword and posited the cross shaped shield on my back. "Can't afford to."

"Really? That's fantastic! I was worried you didn't like me. Wait is this one of those things where you mean right now?"

"Why? Are you too busy?" I mocked him. He took it as friendly teasing. And it was, at least to some degree. The kid was not Ozpin. Not yet.

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There was something in the basement. In the tall white house in the middle of the woods where my sisters and I lived with our mother something definitely lurked away in the dark dusty corners of the underside of our house.

I had to be the brave one. I was the oldest. I was a guy. It was time to be a man. It was time to stop being afraid of the shadows which hung on the walls under soft grey lights.

I’d been in the basement a thousand times and I’d been fine literally every time. But still I was afraid of our basement. I was scared of shutting the lights off and walking up the stairs and turning my back on that total darkness. It was just so empty and complete.

No lights penetrated within and the lights which did shine in the basement were dull and weak. It was always dark down there. It was always dusty and had the faint smell of iron or copper.

I went down to get a gallon of milk for my mother. A little errand for a big boy. It should have been no problem for me.

I walked down the stairs. This was the easy part. I turned on the lights and everything was fine. Dark still. But it was fine. There were no Grimm or other goulish monsters down here. It was fine, I reminded myself that frequently and with force.

You’ve been down here so many times and nothing bad has happened a single time.

That didn’t stave off my irrational fears. Just because I knew a fear was irritation didn’t mean I could suddenly control it. We don’t choose our fears any more than we choose what food to like. It was automatic. It was outside of our control. And the dusty smell of iron pressed in on me as I opened the fridge. The light inside the fridge was brighter than the grey lights of the round bulbs in the ceiling. This was the easiest part. It was the part when the room was most lit up.

I grabbed the jug of milk from the shelf easily enough. There was no problem to that at all either. I was strong enough for this. I turned around. I saw little Lily standing in the stairs by the door. Her eyes bulged in their sockets and grew strangely to cover most of her face in a distorted wave like fashion. Her nose and lips and ears shrank and all her hair fell out. She started screaming.

It was a high pitched wail that made my bones and ears ache. Then she shut the door on me slowly and turned off the lights. I was locked in the basement. Alone in the dark with the cold milk jug in my hand.

I raced to the door and fumbled blindly for the handle. When I finally grasped it it was only to discover the door was locked from the other side. I retreated back into the room and dropped the jug. The plastic shattered and milk went everywhere. It coated my legs nice and cold. I crawled on all fours. I searched for the fridge with reaching hands. A square corner. It wasn’t here. It must be to the left. In the total darkness I found the fridge and opened it to get some light. To get some respite.

Inside the fridge was a skinless, hairless, eyeless thing. It twitched it’s head on it’s neck and turned towards me without eyes. With long limbs it crawled out of the cold fridge and towards me.

It grabbed me by the ankle when I fell back and away. It stood there eclipsing the light in its naked glory. Its limbs were much too long and thin and its body was small and round. It picked me up with it’s one hand and sank its long teeth into my ankle.

I woke up with my ankle humming with a vibrating pleasure. It hurt, yes, but it also felt strangely pleasant. I… I rubbed my ankle in the real world. I stroked softly so the skin slipped swiftly there. It felt good. But I was on edge with fear and adrenaline. The sensations combined into a luring grotesqueness that was a pleasant sensation.

“Jaune…” My mom’s voice whispered to me. I heard it clearly in the soft night. There was no buffer or noise machine. It was silent in the room Ren and I shared.  “I will always be your mother.”

Sometimes, in the throes of a nightmare, when unseen powers whirl one over the roofs of strange dead cities, it is a relief and even a delight to shriek wildly and throw oneself voluntarily along into the where the ginning mist yawns.

I checked a clock. It was four-forty five. I could probably get back to sleep if I really tried or wanted to. I didn’t really want to try. I laid back in the bed. I deserved worse than nightmares for the shit I had done. I was becoming something of a monster myself. Five. I’d killed five people. I’d elegantly unmade and twisted five coils until they certainly weren’t.

I sighed heavily and loudly as I laid back in the bed.

I needed to get out of the rental and clear my head. I need to clear it in a way which didn’t involve shooting myself which was a touch more tempting than I was really letting on.

I got out of bed and got dressed quietly. I made my way out of the rental and onto grey Mistrali gravel. The upper floors really were beautiful. But boy oh boy were the lower floors ugly. In a lot of ways it was two different cities entirely.

The sun was yellow and barely peaking out over the horizon. Beams of course light stretched through the air and I breathed deeply. It was refreshing and crisp this early in the morning. I muddled my way along through a market square clearing. It wasn’t busy but there were people out. I walked past the closed bazaars.

A brown haired girl spun in front of me and I stopped. She had deep green eyes and a red ribbon in her hair. She had to look way up at me to meet my eyes and I stared at her for a moment.

She reached into the basket by her side and pulled out a little white rose. “Here,” she said softly. “For you.”

“A flower?” I asked.

“That’s right.”

I looked away from her. “How much?” I wondered.

“That depends on the customer… for you, no charge. Sound fair?”

“Why?”

“You look like someone who could use a flower,” she returned easily and breezily enough that I thought she might float away.

I reached out a gloved and gauntleted hand. I took the delicate stem gently from her. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I tucked the stem under a strap of my armor.

“Thanks,” I managed.

“Don’t mention it. Have a good day, now,” she bid me and just as swiftly as she appeared she was gone. She weaved her way through the openings in the early crowd. I blinked after her. I was unsure if I really saw her at all but I had the evidence of the encounter pinned to my chest.

I made my way down into a busier street.

I took in the sights of the shops on either side of me. One place was selling those little miniature trees that you trimmed. I wasn’t sure what they were called. There was a jewelry shop next to it and it was still closed. There was a dress shop with something elegant and purple hanging in the window. I stopped and stared at the dress. It would match Yang’s eyes well enough. I glanced a little along in the other window and spotted a flowing red gown which I bet Ruby could rock like no other. It was crimson like the tips of her hair and seemed to have petals flowing around the waist of soft silk. Her eyes could make anything glow and I was sure she would look like a distant dream in this dress.

I shuffled along.

I was suddenly shoved aside as I passed a bakery. The window display confections shattered and a man stumbled out with a cash register under his arm. He bumped into me as he dashed away from the broken window. Inside the bakery some fresh smell was emanating and a fat man in an apron shouted out. There were other customers inside. It smelled of coffee and baking pastries inside. They were open early it would seem. They were robbed early.

“Stop that man!” The man in the apron shouted.

The man with the register under his arm took off down the street.

I activated my semblance with a flex of will and took off after him. My feet… Ren was right. I didn’t touch the ground as I pursued my quarry on a pocket of air. I reached behind me and drew the longsword from the shield. The long triangle shaped blade ran down to the far too long red handle. I gripped it comfortably.

I front flipped in a thirty foot arc that ended with me landing easily in front of the burglar. People gasped and parted around me like I’d made a crater and they seperated around the running man as well. He stopped running with a slide and stared at me with an open mouth.

“Drop it,” I leveled my sword at him. “You can walk away if you drop it.” I watched his whole body tense up. “Don’t,” I suggested harshly.

He went for a gun. I crossed the distance between us in a sapphire blur. I swung my sword up into his hand where he held the gun and collided with green aura. I knocked the gun out of his hands and into the air. I stepped in and shoulder checked him off his feet. Before he landed I swung diagonally down from the right, then diagonally down from the left, then across the bottom in horizontal cut, then one last arching upwards swing that flung him back into a wooden box. He crushed it and his aura dissipated around him.

He dropped the register when I hit him.

He made to crawl towards the gun but, still Limit Broken, I glided forward and took actual walking steps where I kicked the gun off to the side of the street and far away from us. I continued my march and connected my boot with the side of his head in a swift sideways kick with the toe. He fell back and slumped over into unconsciousness.

I stepped away from him and felt my glow dissipate. The power was gone.

I didn’t feel particularly good as I reclaimed the register. I sheathed my sword and walked back down the street and through the gathering crowd. I walked into the bakery over shattered glass which crunched under my feet. I set the register on the counter.

“Thank you, young huntsman,” the baker said.

“It was nothing,” I returned. And it wasn’t. This meant nothing to me.

“Let me offer you a croissant and coffee. Please. Allow me to thank you earnestly and generously from my heart to yours.”

I looked away from him over his head at the fairly crowded establishment. Some people had left but many remained. Some were still partaking in their coffee and pastries even through the chaos. Sure, most had stood up to get a look and were now staring at me and there was a line near the counter of people still mostly organized.

“Fine,” I agreed with a glance back down at the baker. “I’m in no hurry.”

“Thank you. Please, won’t you have a seat. What’s your name?”

“Jaune Arc.”

“Just a moment,” I watched him go behind the counter and pour a coffee and grab a roll. He came back over to me and put them both in my hands.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

“No. Thank you.”

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I walked back into our rental. The police had gotten involved and had had a few questions for me but after that I was free to go.

I ran into Weiss in the kitchen. She turned around and stared at me from where she was washing some mugs in the sink.

“Jaune…”

“Weiss,” I greeted.

“I had the chance to talk to Ruby,” she informed me.

“And?”

“Well, I still think you’re being self destructive. But I see why you wanted me to talk to her. She told me about you two.”

“I figured but couldn’t assume.”

“Where’d you get that?” Weiss asked. She pointed at the little white rose pinned to my chest.

I took it off my person with my gloved hand. I stared down at it for a moment. Then I held it out to her.

“It was a gift, I think,” I said. “Here.”

“Shouldn’t you give it to Ruby?” She wondered. She reached out and took it anyway. She held it up to her nose and smelled it. “It smells like Ruby,” she breathed. “Thoughtful of you.”

“It’s really not. It’s nothing. Besides, I don’t think Ruby is much in the way of gifts. She prefers spending time with me. She doesn’t want presents.”

‘Not even a single little rose as a sign you’re thinking about her?”

“If she doesn’t know I’m always thinking about her by this point I have no clue how to make it stick,” I sighed. “I mean who does she think she is with those tights and that corset?”

“She’s very good looking,” Weiss agreed.

“She’s drop dead gorgeous,” I confessed. I blinked at Weiss. “Of course you are too.”

“Oh?”

“Oh come on. Your entire team is? Ruby doesn’t have any idea but you know. You know that you’re good looking.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You knew that you were out of my league,” I said. She blinked at me. “We can talk about it. It happened. I had a crush on you.”

“I didn’t reject you because I was better looking than you,” she scoffed. “Though you’re right to say I am.” She gave me a small smile.

“Total ice queen,” I laughed. “I don’t know what Ruby sees in me. So shoot. Tell me why.”

“Tell you why she’s into you or tell you why I rejected you?”

“Both.”

“I’ve met a hundred guys who could actually pull off what you were going for at Beacon. You couldn’t even play the part well. You couldn’t even pretend like you were all that. It was dishonest. And you weren’t even good at lying. So you didn’t even have that going for you.”

“You would have liked me if I was good at lying?”

“It would have been something at least. You came at me with a big ball of nothing. You know it and I know it.”

“So what does Ruby see in me? What did Pyrrha see in me?” I asked openly. “I’m mean, come on. I’m not much. And they are both out of my league by miles.”

��Well. You probably weren’t coming at them with a fake personality. I can only assume that they saw the real you and they liked it.”

“Stupefying,” I confided.

“Is it?” She pressed.

“Little bit.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not much. We went over this. I’m a ‘big ball of nothing.’”

“Are you nothing? It sounds like you put your life on the line for Ruby.”

“Well yeah. I’m nothing and she’s a good person. What decision was there to be made in that? It’s no contest.”

“You’re not ‘nothing.’ You came at me with nothing. They aren’t quite the same thing.”

“Don’t bullshit me. You saw straight fuckin’ through me at Beacon. Don’t hesitate now.”

“I don’t know. I suppose we’ll just have to see what’s there and what’s not.”

“I’m telling you that it’s not a lot.”

“But it isn’t ‘nothing.’ Is it?” She leveraged down on me. She pointed her chin upwards at me as she said it.

“And that’s enough?”

“Enough for what?” She challenged.

“Well, ideally making Ruby happy.”

“It might be. Is what it is worth something? Are you valuable down there at the bottom of yourself?”

“Probably not,” I admitted.

“Well I don’t know,” she confessed right back. “I never got to see the real you.”

“You never wanted to try,” I fired.

“You never gave me the opportunity to try,” she breezed. “If we’re honest you would have tried that fake personality on any date I gave you. So why would I bother?”

“Honestly?” I asked.

“Honestly,” she agreed with an elegantly quirked eyebrow.

“I’d like to believe I would have surprised you,” I said.

“Is that right? So you want to impress me?”

“Always have,” I returned immediately.

“I suppose we’ll just have to see about that,” she folded her arms and leaned back on the counter. She had her lips turned up in a little smirk.

I looked away first and pushed my hand through my hair. I clicked my jaw closed.

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[ozpins-halfway-house]

Alright kiddos and Miss.Summer! Let’s get this started! I already have all the ingredients, but I don’t really know where everything is in the kitchen. Can y’all grab me a knife, baking dish, a pan, a measuring cup, and if you have one, a blender. I brought my own ice cream maker from home so we’ve got that covered. And Mr.Oz if you want you can keep the ice cream maker, I never really use it and I feel like the kids might enjoy it a bit more. -🐱

Weiss: I'm not really sure where anything is, either.

Whitley: We've only baked a couple times in here.

Summer: That's alright, I'll get the knife and the blender.

Oscar: I'll grab the baking dish, pan, and measuring cup.

Mr. Oz: Oh, that's very generous of you. Thank you, Copper!